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In the last few months, I've purchased one K-1 for under $1.000 ; and another K-1 for under $900. Today on Ebay I counted 4 K-1 cameras with buy-it-now prices (including shipping) of less than $1,000 !
I do most of my own lens repairs. However, when I've contacted Zeiss USA (or other premium lens repair centers) in the past, I've found that many of their repair estimates were over $500. I can only imagine that many camera repairs can also go over $500.
I keep cameras that I like a long time, and the K-1 just may be my all time favorite camera. My oldest K-1 has tens of thousands of shutter actuations on it and it's beat up and mutilated - I doubt I'd get $700 for it if I tried to sell it.
So, for those of us who are shooting older/discontinued cameras like the K-1, does it make sense to purchase a second backup K-1 to replace our main K-1 should it have a major failure? Is it cheaper to just buy a second body then to send a broken older body that's been discontinued in for repair?
This is even more true for older/discontinued Pentax APS-C cameras. I just sold a like new K5iis (3,000 shutter clicks) with grip and lots of extras for just $300. Here on Pentax Forums, a friend had a mint K5iis (my favorite Pentax APS-C body) with 2,000 clicks on it - it was for sale for months before he finally sold it for barely over $200. For that money, about the only thing a camera repair a shop would do would be to replace a broken battery compartment door - any more serious repairs would clearly cost more than the camera is worth.
I prefer to shoot older lenses and discontinued cameras because they are: 1) "good enough" for my photography needs and 2) I don't have to worry about them being damaged in the field (or stolen). The savings on my not buying camera theft insurance I've used to purchase inexpensive older/discontined gear for backup and redundancy.
Tonight I'm going out shooting Christmas lights with my old beat up K-1 and a couple of sub-$200, old, fast, prime, bokeh lenses. If I break something (or something is stolen) I won't loose any sleep knowing I've got plenty of cheap backup gear at home that can easily replace it.
So, I'd like to ask - "Are older/discontinued Pentax bodies (e.g. K-1, K-3, K5) now disposable"? If you significantly damage them is it better to just buy another body (and either: discard, part-out, or sell "as is" the broken body?), or is it better to repair the broken body?
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Last edited by Fenwoodian; 12-09-2019 at 03:21 PM.